I read in one of the mags many moons ago about making my own ground foam. Back then I tried it and it worked very well - I just didn’t make enough of it. I wanted to make some more but couldn’t find the article. I proceeded anyways since I didn’t recall it being anything special.
I made enough ground foam to virtually cover a 4’X8’ area solid! For less than $10.
I don’t claim to be the inventor of this, but I thought I’d share it since usually I’m asking for information versus sharing information. I do wish I could find the original article because I think it had some tips to use.
Regardless, here’s what I did. I went to the Dollar General store and bought 3 packages, at $1 per package, of those smaller, any-color-goes, sponges. Luckily for me each package had all yellow except for 1 and it had 3 purple ones. Each sponge is maybe 3"X5"X1/2" thick. Chinsy things. these particular packages had 9 sponges per package. I also picked up some Tintex - they only had dark green and I knew from doing this before that lighter is better. So I picked up yellow too. By mixing various amounts of the yellow and green you can make different shades.
What I did was tear the sponges into ‘bite size pieces’ or smaller. this takes some time so tune into your local sports talk show.
I have a blender that I use only for this. Picked it up at a yard sale for a couple bucks. Even if you don’t have an extra blender, having the top plastic part is all that really matters. The base/motor can be your good one.
Put 1 or 2 SMALL handfuls of sponge in the blender container. It’s better for your blender’s motor to error on the light side.
Mix up some Tintex or Ritz dye to the proper proportion in a separate container. Add enough of the watery dye to the sponge (in the blender container) to cover it at least 1/2 of the way. Too much water and the sponge doesn’t seem to get chopped up enough, too little and it puts too much of a burden on your blender motor.
I remember reading an article a couple of years ago by a person who had taken this idea one step further by gathering up dead leaves and running them through a blender to make forest litter.
Alan,
Thanks for the tip about grinding up sponges to make ground foam. I know I’m expanding this thread a little bit but I’ve got another approach that I’d like to share. I’ve used our Cuisinart food processor to grind up clump moss and it makes great ground cover, especially for areas in or around a forest or on hills. I buy the moss for around $2.00 at Michael’s Craft Stores or Joanne’s Fabric and Craft store and end up with a lot of ground cover. Be sure to buy the moss that is normally used to spread around the tops of planted real or artificial flowers. It has a lot of dirt along with the moss but after it is ground up, it works great and the dirt adds to the effect. While I like Woodland Scenic’s ground foams, I probably use more of this stuff than most of the foams.
I have used a similar, yet slightly different method. I try to get the foam out of an old pillow or couch cushion, the really soft foam. Tear it into 1-2" square chunks and dye it like that. I used the dark green Rit fabric dye, but a hunter green or some of the other greens should work too. Squeeze them out, them lay the chunks out to dry for quite a while. When they are dry all the way through, put the chunks into the blender a little at a time. With this method the blender doesn’t get stained, you already have some color variation, and as soon as you are done chopping you can apply the foam. I have always been very pleased with the results, as it gives a very fine foam that is great for trees and ground cover. I also got this from an old magazine, so I won’t try to take credit for it!! Good luck!
The Great Model Railroads video on Lou Sassi’s layout goes into great detail on chopping up dried leaves, etc. in the blender for forest cover. “The Tree Group” mixes up a concoction called “ground goop” for general ground cover on Lou’s layout. It looks great on the video. Add the homemade ground foam processes described above and you’ve got a basement Woodland Senics all to yourself!
Have a similiar technique; I will own up that I have never done this but I was told about this technique by a fellow model railroader who, apparantly, picked up the technique from military modelers. He has used this technique for leafing trees for years.
Get some foam - sponges work just great - cut them into small pieces - how small depends upon you - and soak these pieces in water-based glue - let them soak until they are absolutely dry - ABSOLUTELY DRY. Put them in a I-picked-up-this-great-bargain-at-a-yard-sale blender and grind away. Do not grind this so much that you turn it into the texture of sugar unless, of course, that is what you want; the final step is to soak the glue loose in a dye mixture.